Behind the Making of a Mobile Game

Mar 4, 2013 10:35 pm ET

Big Fish Games

By Jason Bellini

Chris Campbell, a 39-year-old game director at Big Fish Games in Seattle, wanted to make a mobile game about his dog, Bear. That personal inspiration kicked off the lengthy process of creating “Fetch.”

Mr. Campbell discussed the five steps to making the game, which took a team of nine people an entire year and cost Big Fish just over $1 million. The game, due out this month, follows the journey of a boy trying to rescue his dog.

Mr. Campbell says the development process began a year ago with artists sketching hundreds of drawings, starting with the game’s two main characters, the boy and dog, and moving to the setting and story line. The sketches and story boards helped the company come up with a single premise, which supported every decision in the production process. For “Fetch,” the premise was, “What if a boy’s dog was stolen by a hungry fire hydrant?”

The team then went to work for three months building the first 10 minutes of “Fetch.” Illustrators converted the concept drawings into computer renderings. 3-D animators gave the characters a digital “skeleton,” which they then used to “rig” and “weight” the models.

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